Ben Wheatley talks Freakshift

Exclusive: Hill Street Blues meets Doom, anyone?

When we heard Total Film favourite Ben Wheatley was in the early stages of prepping a film called Freakshift, describing it as “Hill Street Blues with monsters,” we simply had to pay him a visit to get more information.

So, after helping Ben out on a test footage shoot, we asked him to expand on that Hill Street Blues comparison…

“It's got that interplay and banter and emotional stuff that’s done so brilliantly in Hill Street Blues . And it involves the teams of people and the professionalism and all those things that are great about cop shows, but with monsters and lots of genre-action.”

But cop shows aren’t the only influence on Freakshift . “It’s also a mix of my favourite video-games. Doom especially, which is why I’ve got our leads running around with pump-action shotguns – which they use copiously.”

So with all these shotguns flying around, will it be an 18? “No, because all the violence is all on-creature."

“But it will have a Paul Verhoeveny-vibe to it – it’s going to have a satirical edge. It’s not going to be harrowing like Kill List , but it’s going to be tense. Tense and actiony.””